My turn
I don't know what it was with SS but it never excited me. The reveal trailer didn't do anything for me which is impressive in its own right i since i lived through the Wind Waker reveal fiasco and still ended up more excited for Wind Waker (gawd that initial reveal was foul) than i ever was for SS. I'm not against Cel-shading (Wind Waker is my favourite game of all time) but SS looked 'off' Link didn't look 'right' to me, the character designs didn't thrill me either and nothing stood out to me as being exciting... probably because the newest and most interesting feature seemed to be the ability the roll bombs... (something which was horribly annoying to do in the end product).
From its reveal to its release and all the footage i saw in between, SS never once got me excited to actually play it, which is odd for a Zelda game.
Now, I'm also not against motion controls... I don't think the Wii had a good first party library but that wasn't down to me thinking that it was because the games were motion controlled. I just don't think the games in general were very good in the Wii generation, so keep in mind that I'm fine with motion controls when you read the next thing i'm about to say...
Playing SS was such a damn chore! We'll get on to the design in a second but bloody hell those motion controls!! Not that they were unresponsive (though i was having to re-calibrate nearly every time i stayed in first person for longer than ten seconds), but they were just so over-used and so underwhelming that it just made things a chore. Its fine with items like the bow and arrow and the slingshot, items that you manually aim, but when the motions controls invade items like the whip and items created for the sole purpose of being operated specifically by motion controls (like the beetle) then it starts to feel as if SS is not just including motion controls but banging you over them at every available opportunity, at which point the controls begin to become invasive. Not to mention that the bow (thanks to the dual use of the nunchuck) and the whip were really irritating to use, especially in timed puzzles or when you're surrounded by enemies.
The game design to include motion controls didn't seem as thought through as it could have been either. Fighting with the sword felt very tacked on, take the enemies in the Lanayru Mining Facility Dungeon, so many enemies had glowing blue 'slash here in this direction to defeat' lines on them, it felt like i was following a child's first DIY book where you needed to cut along the dotted line with safety scissors... The bokoblins didn't change their fighting styles either, (nor did the Stlafos despite how many extra arms they had), they just gained more annoying weaponry like those electric... things they carried later on which was disappointing.
As for level design (and i do mean 'level') SS has to have some of the most boring locations I've come across in a Zelda game. TP had some open spaces with very little in them but at least they felt like they were part of a bigger organic world and didn't feel out of place (plus at the time of release they were good places to appreciate the lighting in TP and some of the distant scenery), but SS's puzzle laden levels (which become available like levels in a Mario game and are even selected like such), like the motion controls, kept reminding me that i was playing a video game and not a piece of escapist fantasy. Having only three different locations was annoying too, I found myself moving through SS waiting to see more provinces open up but they never did, I literally spent all of SS asking myself 'where's the rest of it?'. To have only a forest, desert and volcano didnt even feel like decent choices, I'd have preferred a water province as opposed to a desert area for example, and having to revisit each place three times was dull, even though there were 'new' places to visit within each province (sometimes, unless you're doing a Silent Realm quest in the places you've already visited, or looking for your stolen items in the places you've already visited) a desert is still a desert and a volcano is still a volcano so the 'new' places didn't feel as new or exciting or as interesting as they should have...
Of all the dungeons in the game i only really enjoyed two, the Lanayru Mining Facility and the Ancient Cistern, but in my opinion those two dungeons are instantly trumped by the worst dungeons in the likes of Wind Waker, OoT and TP, so they're nothing to write home about in the end. The timeshift stones were also overused in my opinion, to the extent that I'd audibly groan when I came across one.
As for the bosses... SS has some of the worst bosses in Zelda history. I think the only bosses in other Zelda games that are worse than the ones found in SS is maybe the Anglor Fish from LA and the Chu Chu from Minish Cap in the first dungeon, though he was a fun fight.... Really, SS's bosses were horrible, both to fight and to look at. Tentalus was both annoying to fight and to look at (and made me want to watch Monsters Inc). The Imprisoned was god awful in every respect, a pinecone with toes in the worst possible place to have a boss fight. The other bosses just aren't worth wasting space to talk about (especially since Ghirahim fills in for an absent one)... Though Koloktus, perhaps the game's best boss is, to me, an overrated boss and again is trumped by some of the worst bosses in other Zelda games, much like the dungeons.
The story felt like filler too, I liked the plot that played throughout the first three dungeons, a chase-like narrative which saw Link catching up with Zelda and Impa little by little which gave a good sense of progression, but then it just became filler... Yes, other games like Ocarina of Time, A Link to the Past and Twilight Princess full-on stop the narrative and plot until you've cleared enough dungeons, but while SS is more story driven it just can't keep the narrative relevant and it caves into filler, prove yourself via the three sacred flames to forge the Master Sword, then prove yourself again for the song of the hero... it just doesn't feel like its needed. (And who said we ever needed a Master Sword origin story?)
Fi... her design was okay (her singing animation was god awful) but she has to be the most irritating, invasive and cliche companion to ever be by Link's side.
Mogma: Go to the volcano.
Fi: *ping* Master, there is a 90% chance we should go to the volcano.
Link: ... (I'm not deaf, nor ignorant! You always do this! shut up!)
She's just... ugh! And then you get to the end where the emotionless puppet suddenly has emotion and feels happiness, ah what a happy ending...
Ghirahim... was terribly written, he starts angry, ends angry, has little if any character progression and feels as if he's there just to waste time (and fill in for an absent boss)
Demise... who'd have thought that having Ganondorf crossed with Akuma would have made a crap villain? Especially since he spends most of his time as a mute pinecone with toes. By the time you face off with Demise you've technically already defeated him three times and dropped a floating island on his head. And since you're squaring off with him in the past, you know that even if you screw up Hylia will just re-imprison him anyway...
Groose... like Koloktus is another overrated aspect of SS, Linebeck in PH goes through a very similar transformation period and is more relevant to the plot than Groose ever became in SS. He isn't written all that well either, it takes four rather short cutscenes to 180 his character and they're rather bluntly done in my opinion.
What's left... Well, the flying (even though i love sailing in WW) was also a chore, flapping every now and again was irritating, I don't care if we have a 360 3D space in which to roam and fly about, there's less in the sky than there is in the Great Sea in WW, at least WW had something in every quadrant, however small, to be able to leave your boat and explore. SS has very little in the way of exploration in the sky and the rocks that do hide goodies have no roaming room at all. The Loftwing also feels very slow and terribly limited, I'd have liked to have been able to pull of some Starfox Style somersaults for example.
SS didn't have a 3D camera either, something that i miss terribly... it also doesn't have a day-night cycle unless you force it, which is odd since Ocarina of Time (a game on less powerful hardware) managed it with no trouble...
NPCs were dull and or irritating, like Beedle who now drops you out of his flying cabin if you don't buy anything. Beedle's flying cabin is another point of design contention for me... if i ever want him i have to go looking for him around the island and then waste ammo on ringing his bell (if you dont have the clawshots). At least in WW you knew where he was and could get to him quicker with no added effort...
The Lumpy Pumpkin, an obvious Lon Lon knockoff was less than fun too, especially the chandelier sidequest; steal a heart piece and break a chandelier, do fetch-quests (in which you are always rewarded) and then pay off your debt by being awarded another heart piece... crime pays, kids!
Ah, on the heart piece side of things, SS also has the least number of heart pieces to find in the overworld, you start with six hearts and are given heart medalions later on which bestow upon you a free full heart container... I never max out my hearts before the end of a Zelda game, yet i did so comfortably i SS.
One last thing that i don't like before i get on to the stuff i do (if there's even a point)... Remember in TP where every time you'd load your file, Link would always hold up a coloured rupee like it was something new and it would temporarily halt the action (especially if you were in the middle of a fight)? Well SS goes one worse with its treasure items. It not only shows you the treasure item like it something new every time you load your file but it then takes you to a sunscreen and shows you where it goes on the little treasure grid (along with the other 50 of the same thing). There are also way more treasures than coloured rupees, so often times the action is stopped more than once in the same fight for ten seconds before you can continue, its invasive, its horrible, its unnecessary.
It also probably goes without saying by this point that thee unconnected overworld and repeated boss battles also annoyed the hell out of me and made the game come off as lazy.
So, in my opinion, this is why i hate SS....
Now, bonus round; things i did like about SS.
The Island in the Sky and Fi's Farewell themes are pretty darn good...
